Compare And Contrast Booker T. Washington And W. E. B. Dubois

Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois were black leaders who held similar ideals. They both believed that whites should eventually recognize blacks as their equals and give them rights such as suffrage and economic freedom. They also acknowledged that because of their lack of education and prosperity, blacks were at a disadvantage to whites. Therefore, as DuBois wrote in his Souls of Black Folk, whites needed to “arouse and encourage” blacks for them to be successful. However, they disagreed on how blacks should attain this success. Washington believed that blacks should flatter whites, act inferior, and appeal purely to whites’ self-interest. The best way to do this was to campaign for economic freedom and industrial education through which

He focused on persuading the southerners because if he only convinced northerners to help, they would employ political power to command the southerners. This would alienate Southerners and destroy their ego, but it would not ameliorate conditions for blacks in the South. Southerners controlled the direct implementation of black ruling because of their proximity, so they could disobey the northerners through their local rule, as they did during during Reconstruction. Northerners simply did not have the resources to constantly police the South. Washington addressed the whites’ concern that blacks would be a threat to workingmen once they received industrial education and economic freedom, stating that blacks had always remained loyal and still would; in fact, they would be willing to die for whites. In his Atlanta Exposition Address, he said they would help whites build a better South by “buy[ing] your surplus land, mak[ing] blossom the waste places in your fields, and run[ning] your factories”. Washington even attacked Reconstruction by claiming that blacks were at fault by trying to start from the top instead of working from the bottom up. This claim derogated blacks, but he thought that this was for a good cause as he was trying to fuel the ego and confidence of the white southerners so that they would help blacks achieve more rights. His speech resonated well

Washington relied too heavily on the premise that whites will follow their self interest, which he assumed would be to help blacks gain economic freedom and eventually political equality. But the path to attain equal rights was more complicated than that. Whites were too fickle for Washington to predict and rely on. Contrary to his argument, it was not always in the self-interest for all whites to help blacks. Even though providing industrial education to blacks might help Northern factory owners receive more productive labor, these blacks posed a threat to white workingmen. Moreover, many whites did not trust the blacks to loyally serve them because they had often revolted in the past. Moderate Republicans were persuaded through bribes to not side with blacks. Republican presidents saw it in their best interest to allow southern Democrats to control the south as long as they endorsed the president. Eventually, even northern radical Republicans lost interest in helping blacks because of the sheer impracticality. They, a minority, would not be able to garner enough votes if there were too much southern opposition and northern bribery. Essentially, shifting power struggles between parties and corruption demolished any civil progress. For example, during Reconstruction, once moderate northern Republicans realized that their economic situation was not getting better (partly because they had